1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a ceramic valve, and more particularly to an innovative design of an anti-pressure ceramic valve.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98
The structure of a conventional ceramic valve 10 is as disclosed in FIG. 1, wherein, the upper half section of the valve casing 11 is usually an integral body formed through injection molding, with a crosswise top wall 13 integrally extending inward from the top of the side wall 12 of the valve casing 11, and then projecting upward to form a flanged tube portion 14. Based on this, the top wall 13 can limit the components of driving base 15, turning valve plate 16, and fixing valve plate 17 inside the valve casing 11. However, during actual applications, such a conventional structure is found to have the following problem: after the ceramic valve is installed inside the water tap valve spool 20, a nut 21 is used to lock and press on the top wall of the valve casing 10 of the ceramic valve to fix the ceramic valve 10, however, when the nut 21 presses downward, if the pressure is too high, due to the plasticity of the top wall 13 of the valve casing 11 of the ceramic valve 10, it will have a downward deformation under the pressure (as marked by Arrow L1). Even if the deformation is minimal, it will cause too tight contact between the driving base 15, the turning valve plate 16, and the fixing valve plate 17 inside the valve casing 10 (as marked by Arrow L2). Since the top wall 13 of the valve casing 11 is designed to press and limit the driving base 15, the turning valve plate 16, and the fixing valve plate 17, the assembly tightness between the components must be a result of precise calculations and evaluations by the ceramic valve manufacturers, and to maintain a good installation and operation state of the driving base 15, turning valve plate 16, and fixing valve plate 17, the assembly tolerance value must be within a very small error limit range. Therefore, when the above-mentioned nut is used to lock and position the ceramic valve, if the water tap installer applies an excessive pressure to cause a downward deformation of the valve casing top wall of the ceramic valve, the original reserved gaps between the driving base, turning valve plate, and fixing valve plate may disappear, causing too tight contact between the components, and consequent quality problems and defects of the finished products of the manufactured water taps.
There is one point to be additionally mentioned: in actual manufacturing of water tap products, the assembly of the whole water tap structure and the production of the ceramic valve are usually conducted in different factories. Therefore, it is very difficult to solve the above-mentioned problem in the downstream water tap assembly factory (because it is hard to control uniform locking pressure of the nut). This problem must be solved by the upstream ceramic valve manufacturer. Hence, it is an important technical challenge for the related manufacturers to find a solution to improve the structure of the conventional ceramic valve and solve the above-mentioned problem.
Thus, to overcome the aforementioned problems of the prior art, it would be an advancement if the art to provide an improved structure that can significantly improve the efficacy.
Therefore, the inventor has provided the present invention of practicability after deliberate design and evaluation based on years of experience in the production, development and design of related products.